What's happened to split screen Multiplayer?

[old-man-joe]

I personally think that the difference is in the details. Using halo 3 as an example, yeah, split screen is great for having a bunch of mates around and firing bullets/rockets/naids/whatever at them. However, you come up to problems like the old screen-cheating, and also you hear every sound effect caused in the game as if it was made by you. The you switch to live, and you add another dimension. There's no screen-cheating, and a gun firing halfway across the map sounds like it's halfway across the map. Although, split-screen doesn't lag. But, yeah, i agree with general statement, Bring Split-screen Back!

 

[Bobzer77]

Im prettey sure Mercenaries 2 (coming out in august) will have split screen

 

[Doctor Panda]

In short, I want 4 player split screen, bots (even bad ones can spice things up a bit), and campaign co-op.

I couldn't possibly agree more. It was a damn good idea in the last generation of games and it's a damn good idea now. YES we have online now and YES it's finally a viable way of playing the game. YES it's a more balanced, fair and pretty way to play the game...

But it is *NOT* more fun - there are no times when i enjoyed games more than when my bestests are all crammed into a room with me, eating cheap pizza and getting a little tipsy. Anything that helps with that has my vote.

 

[OmegaTalon]

I can see the good reasons for keeping split screen, but I have experienced the bad reasons having it too.

One time in particular when playing a 4 way battle on call of duty 3 (yes 3) my friends had all memorised the map so I had no real choice but to hide and camp, but grenades were always being thrown my way and I was effortlessly killed because they kept looking at my screen and learning my position instantly taking all the fun from the game.

I never liked split screen ever since, and i've happily played XBL instead.

Other features such as multiple people playing on the same screen, (rail shooter or mini-games for the Wii in particular) I am happy to play because I find it much more entertaining.

 

[CTU_Agent24]

You LIKE Split-Screen???? I like to have the full screen to myself, and if you're sharing it with three people, it's easy to be confused and look at the wrong screen. I only like Split-Screen in versus matches, where I can screen watch, but I feel cheap doing that.

It's not always about the actual game dude, Half the fun is being with mates all playing the same game and enjoying the company and enjoying the moments in the game (I.e Kiling the guy with the golden gun by shere fluke in Goldeneye). Thats half the fun in playing games.

Anyone else agree?

 

[00exmachina]

What's happened to split screen Multiplayer?
I was looking for a 4 player split screen game the other day and couldn't find ONE.
Online games are fine, but why do we really have multiplayer?
Remember when you use to have mates round to play 'Goldeneye' on N64, they were some great times. Now playing multiplayer with mates involves calling him/her and arranging to join a specific game server.
Whats happened?
You can no longer find original split/screen 4 player games where you sit at the same TV, laugh and have fun.
What has happened?

Nothing happened to it, it's mostly used for local multi player in FPS games. All the halo games use it, Red faction used it ect. The games may only be advertised as network multi player but check to see how many local players it can support.

 

[Nerdfury]

It sucks. For years, all my friends had the awesome setups for multiplayer - larger TVs, better sound systems, larger lounge areas, comfier seats. One friend even had a room dedicated to gaming! He had two couches and two chairs, a big TV (admittedly not LCD or plasma in those days, just a huge fishbowl one), an amp and awesome speakers, a bar fridge - the works. All I had was my room, my 50 cm TV and mono sound and.. well.. floor space.

Now I have a 46" HDTV, 5.1 surround sound, a computer that actually works when I try and plug it into my TV and a PS3, my own house. And yet finally, when I get a set up that BEGS to have friends over for split-screen shenannigans, they all tell me "Nah, let's just find a server and play online!"

 

[Gerfo]

that's right, it's fun and all playing with people online, but it's not the same feeling as having them in the room with you, playing the same game. A little too easy to cheat though, but that was part of the fun

 

[bib12342004]

what you talking about?
There are lots of game that have split screen

Halo
Halo 2
Halo 3
COD1
COD2
COD3
COD4
Haze
The Darkness
Quake 4
HalfLife
and there are a lot more then this also.

 

[Eagle Est1986]

COD4 has splitscreen? That's news to me, how many people does it support? Also dude, I think the subject is refering to modern games, most of your games are last generation and more are over a year old.
I personally think that not enough games have split-screen, I prefer stiing with my mates, having a few beers and chilling out, all while shooting them in the face or over-taking them around a corner. Online multiplayer is no match for playing in the same room or having a LAN game. Nothing like being able to see the expressions on people's faces.

 

[T.H.O.R]

You know...as much fun as Splitscreen was, a lot of valid points HAVE been brought up. I mean, there's so much to put in a game these days, I don't really like having to share my screen. It would be nice if consoles would come out with a "Multitap" of sorts, but for Screens. That way you could plug ONE console into more than one Screen, and play multiplayer that way.

Game companies could still include splitscreen for those with a single television, but it would be up to Console manufacturers to charge us (probably $100.00 USD) for a splitting adapter that allowed the console to project on two (or more) screens at once. I mean, you can rig multiple televisions to all project one singular image, why not do the reverse, but with a game console? That way you can have your whole screen(cake) and eat it too(play 'splitscreen' with a buddy 5 feet away).

Hell, they could even make wireless splitters (in time) so that you didn't even have to sit on top of each other...


Also, I have a great time with the "Shared screen" multiplayer games (Usually a good 'ol dungeon crawler) But those seem to have died out as well...Fable 2 is using it, and I couldn't be happier.



I dunno, that's just my $.02

 

[Jamash]

As TVs have become bigger & better quality, people have become more reluctant to share them with friends.

 

[Rucknar]

In short, I want 4 player split screen, bots (even bad ones can spice things up a bit), and campaign co-op.

I couldn't possibly agree more. It was a damn good idea in the last generation of games and it's a damn good idea now. YES we have online now and YES it's finally a viable way of playing the game. YES it's a more balanced, fair and pretty way to play the game...

But it is *NOT* more fun - there are no times when i enjoyed games more than when my bestests are all crammed into a room with me, eating cheap pizza and getting a little tipsy. Anything that helps with that has my vote.

Yes, thank you! Someone else who agrees with me, bring back good 4 player split screen and bots. Playing games with your mates, eating and drinking was great, those were the hay-days of gaming in my mind!

 

[KimMR251]

I HATE split screen. I don't like sharing. And for some reason, it ends up being more of a distraction...Last time I played split screen was back with the first Halo...

 

[Silver]

In short, I want 4 player split screen, bots (even bad ones can spice things up a bit), and campaign co-op.

I couldn't possibly agree more. It was a damn good idea in the last generation of games and it's a damn good idea now. YES we have online now and YES it's finally a viable way of playing the game. YES it's a more balanced, fair and pretty way to play the game...

But it is *NOT* more fun - there are no times when i enjoyed games more than when my bestests are all crammed into a room with me, eating cheap pizza and getting a little tipsy. Anything that helps with that has my vote.

Yes, thank you! Someone else who agrees with me, bring back good 4 player split screen and bots. Playing games with your mates, eating and drinking was great, those were the hay-days of gaming in my mind!

That's because video games are a group activity. Sure, some people are going to scream at me and tell me I'm wrong, but then you either haven't played with friends or you haven't been around long enough. Computer games can be singleplayer, sure. But video games are a group activity, that's just the way things are. There's a reason I will always remember playing mariocart on the 64 with friends, not only at their houses but in school, on breaks and stuff. There's a reason you remember playing Tecken, and it's not because of the time you unlocked all chars and completed the campaign, it's the multiplayer. There's a reason Goldeneye was fun and popular, and it sure as hell wasn't because of the singleplayer (although good, that wasn't why you got the game). Even singleplayer games like Super mario, turtles or duck hunt for the NES was for groups of people. You didn't sit alone and play those games, you have people cheering you on.

 

[JDLY]

i dont know.
i might just be lucky
all my favorite games have split-screen (Resistance, Resistance 2 whenever it comes out, GH3, Rock Band) (Assassin's Creed doesn't but there is no multiplayer whatsoever in that game)

i like split-screen
probably because none of my good friends have a PS3 except one who isnt allowed to play M rated games except at my house

 

[Nerdfury]

probably because none of my good friends have a PS3 except one who isnt allowed to play M rated games except at my house

What are you, twelve?

 

[SteinFaust]

nobody want's to have a straight, unmoving line burned into their precious 900inch plasma tvs. rly wtf happened to the regular ppl with regular televisions?

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

*Loud noise of exacerbation*

I don't understand why some people hate games having split-screen. If YOU don't like it YOU don't have to play it but the fact is hundreds more people want their games to have split-screen. It's not like adding split-screen support is a huge technical challenge that will significantly delay the game's release.

Also, I don't understand why console ports of PC games apparently cannot add split-screen multiplayer. I have FEAR and The Orange Box for Xbox 360. FEAR I can understand (it's a pretty lazy port and doesn't have much for multiplayer anyway) but Team Fortress 2? It's a frickin' multiplayer only game. At the very least I'd like to explore the maps and test out the classes offline.

If you're wondering why I'm so annoyed check out this thread on halowars.com:
http://www.halowars.com/forums/thread/248305.aspx
I'm Roman_Slayer there btw.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

I don't know lets just blame it on development costs, ever since these new consoles came out, for some reason now it costs more to make them than it did last time, therefore, we can't afford focusing on multiplayer AND single player, it's either "Multiplayer with a single player add-on" - or vice versa. Then the "purist" kind, where it's single player only or multi player only.